“No matter what happens,” Chris Heaney declares with a grin, “no matter if the economy’s good or bad, you’ve got to drink.” He stands behind the bar at Club Kadan, the Adams Avenue bar he …
February 4, 2009
Blog Entries
- Let's Go Birding
- Michael Phelps Revisited -- And a Poker Game Bust
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- Valhalla turns tables on Helix
Audio clips
News & Stories
San Diego's changing its dive bars
Light Load
Although movies had been set in Minnesota before Fargo (notwithstanding its misleading North Dakota title), movies as disparate as The Farmer’s Daughter, The Heartbreak Kid, Purple Rain, Grumpy Old Men, it was the Coen brothers …
February 4, 2009
Elephant and Castle
On a recent Friday night I was staying at the downtown YMCA. Don’t ask. The irony in its being referred to as the “Y” for “Young” was not lost on me. I wondered if the …
February 4, 2009
Do Right
I dug right down to the bottom of my soul... And cried. ’Cause I felt...nothing. — A Chorus Line “Your phone is ringing,” David said. “It’s your mom. Here.” Disoriented, I took hold of the …
February 4, 2009
Fingernails, Cactus, Poppies
Heymatt: The other day I tried pulling out my thumbnail. I just yanked on it for a while but nothing happened. Nails don’t look like the stuff around them. Are they just stuck into our …
February 4, 2009
Basic Risotto
Recipe by Jeff Rossman, executive chef, Terra. I learned to cook on the job. My dad opened up Pam Pam Café and Grill in Hotel Circle, and I managed the floor at night. During the …
February 4, 2009
All Mashed In
Mike Keneally was fronting local band Drop Control when the invitation came in 1987 to join Frank Zappa’s touring band as a “stunt guitarist,” replacing Steve Vai. “The multivolume work I’m doing now, Scambot, shows …
February 4, 2009
Mira Mesa Meets Caltrans
Granted, Mira Mesa needs traffic relief, especially for entering and exiting the I-15. But how does Caltrans justify a project that is likely to increase already dangerous traffic next to a local elementary school? The …
February 4, 2009
Price of admission
Is Jerry Sanders in thrall to his biggest political contributors? Some have thought so, especially as Sanders is said to harbor thoughts of running for statewide office in the not-so-distant future. Now there is evidence …
February 4, 2009
Pedal It Somewhere Else
Thirty Years AgoCity traffic engineer Joe Casteneda says stretches of road which racked up the highest bicycle-accident rates (in the five-year period from 1969 to 1974) include Clairemont Mesa Boulevard from Highway 805 east to …
February 4, 2009
Ponzi Pawns
All financial markets are Ponzi schemes set up to take money from the unwitting and give it to insiders. All numbers concerning stocks are manipulated to give rich people more money; they’re lies. So, you’ve …
February 4, 2009
Help Too Much
Diane lost her husband, a “brilliant” CEO, in Africa. Now the socialite wants to sell the house, land a job (her first), and sever all connections with her past. Diane’s in such deep denial, her …
February 4, 2009
Celebration of the Lizard
Last December 8 would’ve been Jim Morrison’s 60th birthday. Two of the surviving Doors threw a party in Hollywood at Barney’s Beanery, famous in the ’60s for the stars who hung out there. I wasn’t …
February 4, 2009
Some Enchanted Evening
Valentine’s Day is the year’s biggest night for restaurants. Who doesn’t love love? For some it’s proposal night; for others, a renewal of vows. Or snuggle-up time. Or hoping-to-get-lucky night. The chefs await you with …
February 4, 2009
Very Thai
I’m confused. Here I am, top of India Street, breezy Friday, trying to decide between Mexican and Thai. El Indio and Saffron. Each one’s a sort of record-holder. El Indio’s one of the oldest taco …
February 4, 2009
Rancho Vista Church
“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord,” read Dwain Bostic at the outset. “‘Plans to prosper you and not harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future.’” Hearing …
February 4, 2009
Autoette in the News
Okay, football is over. Now what? Well, pilgrim, can’t you hear the slap of leather and pop of a beer can? Hell, yeah — Padres pitchers and catchers report for spring training next week! Peoria, …
February 4, 2009
More Radio Ga-Ga
After four years as KGB’s afternoon deejay, Ditch was fired on January 20. “The entire building was on lockdown that day. You couldn’t even walk into the lobby. You had to get buzzed in. What …
February 4, 2009
Makes Cents
After publicly feuding with their former lead singer, the Taz Taylor Band has replaced vocalist Graham Bonnet (Rainbow, Michael Schenker Group) with another MSG vet, Keith Slack. U.K. guitarist Neil Taz Taylor moved to San …
February 4, 2009
Loudon Wainwright III
As a pop culture observer, I hate to hang a performer’s career image on a single recording about roadkill and for the sheer gusto with which he sang it, but so be it. In 1974, …
February 4, 2009
Bird and the Bee
Son, it’s time we had a talk about The Bird and the Bee. You see, sometimes a man meets a woman, and together they form a musical duo. Let’s say this man is Greg Kurstin, …
February 4, 2009
Sarah Petite, Canobliss, the Shake-Ups
Artist: The Shake-UpsSong: “Sex Exchange Operation” (from the CD Breathing the Flood)Heard By: Adam Goodson, La Mesa I didn’t like the xylophone thing, but I think it was all right. I could kind of hear …
February 4, 2009
For the Team
“After the Chargers started to win some football games,” says Patrick Bernard of SD reggae act High Tide, “it was time to bring out our playoff song, ‘Chargers on a Roll.’ ” On January 3, …
February 4, 2009
Formerly of NBC 7/39
A couple of years ago the company changed my computer login to a series of numbers instead of my name; I should have realized the foreshadowing. Local news viewership is down and advertisers cut their …
February 4, 2009
Charity hole
The San Diego Foundation, an aggregator of charitable donations that have sometimes gone to questionable causes, such as a fund for school superintendent Alan Bersin that was used in part to buy fine wines for …
February 4, 2009
Stencil Does Sundance
On January 14, San Diego’s own celebrity correspondent and red-carpet rude boy, Bob Stencil, took his signature mustache, aviator sunglasses, and unorthodox interviewing style to the Sundance Film Festival for ten days of celebrity interviews …
February 4, 2009
From Russia with Love
Sorrow Underfoot, a Christian band featuring Fallbrook sisters Brittany and Shannon Taylor and their brother Justin on drums, has made several tours of Russia as part of the Calvary Chapel Church’s Planting Missions program. “I …
February 4, 2009
Santiago Trail
Yesteryear, Old Camp was a popular rendezvous point for hunting parties using the historic Joplin Trail between the flatlands of Orange County’s Trabuco Canyon and Old Saddleback (the crest of the Santa Ana Mountains). Today, …
February 4, 2009
Dog owners and non-motor boats battle over Mission Bay
There is a doozy of a donnybrook over usage of the southwest corner of Fiesta Island. It’s a real bitch. Or a real beach. Well, actually, those two words capsulize the battle: dog owners who …
February 4, 2009
Solana Beach’s Financial Straits
Back in the 1920s, Colonel Ed Fletcher took his brother in-law to the cliffs overlooking the ocean on his newly purchased land in what is now Solana Beach. Fletcher armed his brother-in-law with a fire …
February 4, 2009
Crystal Pier Set to Re-Open
The Crystal Pier in Pacific Beach, which has been closed to the public for maintenance since early December, is set to re-open in early February. According to Jim Bostian, who has managed the pier for …
February 4, 2009
Los Angeles-Type Traffic on the 76
My Dad works at JCPenney in Carlsbad. The drive from his house in Bonsall is approximately 12 miles. Normal drive time to work with no traffic is approximately 20 minutes. My Dad's current drive time …
February 4, 2009